ALEN HAMZA: “THE UNDERGROUND”

FROM THE DESK OF JON CONLEY

- Alen Hamza

- "The Underground"

- TWICE THERE WAS A COUNTRY (CSU Poetry Center 2020)

- Reading took place on 10/2/20 as part of the Lighthouse Reading Series

- Footage: Mary & Gretel (Toyland Films, 1918)

- Footage courtesy of the Library of Congress digital archives

- Searched film/video terms: "surreal"

- plate reverb

- wondering echoes

- video trails

- clip filter: "day into night"

- cuts at 0:04, 0:12, 0:32, 1:13, 1:29

- overlapping, slight separation

- wanting to be buried

- reverse

- underground as reverse

- "superbly connected"

- where do we all go

- when we go into the rock?

- what happens

- when the white rabbit follows

- you

- into the underground?

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Alen Hamza immigrated to the United States from Bosnia-Herzegovina as a refugee at the age of fifteen. He has received fellowships from the Michener Center For Writers, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the University of Utah. His work has appeared in AGNI, Fence, and The Southern Review.

Jon Conley is a writer, musician, and educator from Cleveland. He is currently a second-year poetry candidate in the NEOMFA. His work has been published at Hobart, Bending Genres, Bodega, FIVE:2:ONE, Bad Nudes, Hello Horror, and others. He produces and performs music as Beach Stav. Find him online @beachstav.

“The Underground” can be found in Alen’s Twice There Was A Country, available from the Cleveland State University Poetry Center.